California A.B. 3007 Defeated, Would Have Prevented Most Research Calls to Californians Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 6/3/2020 3:42:00 PM Legislation opposed by the Insights Association that would have prohibited most marketing research calls to Californians (at their residential, business or cell phone lines) has been defeated in the state legislature. Read More
California A.B. 1677, Vetoed by Governor, Would Have Penalized Offshoring of Call Centers Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/17/2019 4:20:00 PM Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the Protect Call Center Jobs Act of 2019 (A.B. 1677), which would have penalized California companies that move their call centers out of the country or out of the state. Read More
Oregon S.B. 472 Fails - Would Have Prohibited Selling or Purchasing Telephone Research Sample Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 7/10/2019 4:08:00 PM Oregon S.B. 472 died in committee with the conclusion of Oregon's legislative session at the end of June. This legislation would have prohibited the purchase or sale of a list of telephone numbers to be used for unsolicited calls, including calls for research. Read More
Circuit Court Finally Rebuffs FCC's TCPA Rules, Remanding Them for a Rewrite Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 3/16/2018 5:41:00 PM A DC Circuit Court decision rejected much of the FCC's 2015 TCPA regulations and accepted a lot of the Insights Association's arguments in the case, in which we were intervenors. Read More
The Insights Association and AAPOR File FCC Petition Seeking Legal Differentiation for Marketing and Research Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/30/2017 3:04:00 PM Seeking to clarify the regulatory distinction between the intent to market and sell to individuals and the dissimilar intent to understand market needs, the Insights Association and AAPOR have filed a petition with the FCC to secure "greater clarity" that will be "critical to restoring a measure of sanity to TCPA litigation." Read More
FCC Should White List Research Callers - Insights Association response to robocall proposals Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 8/1/2017 5:12:00 PM The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should require voice service providers and call blocking service providers to check a white list of legitimate dialers before blocking a telephone number, according to comments from a leading research association. Read More
CASRO and MRA Join Suit Against the FCC’s New TCPA Rules Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 8/13/2015 2:59:00 PM America’s two national associations representing the profession and industry of survey, opinion and marketing research have filed a “motion to intervene” in a court case against new telephone rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Read More
New U.S. Restrictions on Telephone Research Prompt Risk Management Debate: Do the new TCPA rules mean you should junk your autodialer? Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 8/3/2015 2:43:00 PM New rules for telephone research from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have dramatically raised the liability risks for telephone survey, opinion and marketing research in the U.S., causing some research companies to go so far in response as to discard most of their dialing equipment. The FCC approved new rules for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in a Declaratory Ruling and Order on June 18, and released them to the public on July 10 — when the rules immediately went int... Read More
Call Monitoring and Recording Notification: Best Practices for Survey, Opinion and Marketing Research Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/28/2014 2:02:00 PM Supervisory monitoring is an essential part of the research process. In order to ensure the proper execution and conduct of interviews, a certain percentage of interviews in all studies are subject to validation and quality control. Researchers also monitor and record for training purposes and to determine that both interviewers and respondents understand the questions being asked. Read More
Caller Identification: Best Practices for Survey, Opinion and Marketing Researchers Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/28/2014 1:55:00 PM Although existing regulations on caller identification (caller ID) at the state and federal level apply primarily to telemarketers, or to intent involving fraud or other criminal activity, policymakers are considering legislation prohibiting various deceptive caller ID practices and there are existing state laws that prohibit the intent to falsify or misrepresent caller ID information. This could impact researchers that intentionally block or alter their caller identification information. Read More